memememe173
16-03-2004, 18:52
Singer Barbarian Guide v. 1
Introduction
Abbreviations/Terms
Overview of the build
Skill discussion
Stat placement
Equipment selection
Strategy
Thank you
PvP section coming soon
Introduction:
In the frigid northlands of Sanctuary roam the great barbarian tribes. The Shadow Wolf, the Bear, the Crane, the Snake, and the Thunder are known far and wide for there great battle prowess and the power of their connection to animal spirits. Shaman, the spiritual leaders of the barbaric tribes have amazing connections to their animal totem, allowing them to produce effects that even the legendary Bul-Kathos would be hard pressed to match. Named “singers” by the men of the south, they call on spiritual aid to stun their enemies, increase the life of allies, and make grown men cower in fear.
Potential shamans are recruited at a young age. Any youth who shows a strong connection to his totem is given to the village shaman, who subjects the boys to merciless test of there physical and spiritual strength. Few succeed in the tests, and anyone who survives can say with conviction that they will be shaman. These brave boys are then sent to a great camp in the wilderness to be trained for five years by the elder shaman. Upon their return the speak in a much more somber and subdued manner, and anyone who looks in there eyes in taken aback, but when on the field of the battle, the inner warrior breaks out of the calm shell and lays waste to any who oppose him with the power of his spirit amplified voice.
Abbreviations/Terms:
PvM: Player vs. Monster
PvP: Player vs Player
FCR: Faster Cast Rate
FHR: Faster Hit Recovery
WCs: Warcries skill tree
WC: War Cry skill
BO: Battle Orders
BC: Battle Command
LA: Leap Attack
DR: Physical Damage Reduced
Display Damage is the damage shown on the character screen
Overview of the build:
The singer barbarian uses the skill War Cry to damage and stun monsters and players, while using his high level BO and Shout to make his whole party stronger.
Skill Discussion:
War Cry: War Cry is your only source of damage and the skill that you will use the most. It rates 20 points.
War Cry deals physical damage and costs 9 mana above you current skill level (level 1 WC costs 10 mana). It will stun physical immunes even though it doesn’t do damage.
With your main skill having such a high mana cost to damage ration, it is not good to have too many +skills. A level 31 WC provides 1000 damage for 40 mana, after that the higher mana cost, makes it very hard to keep casting WC without sacrificing health and overall survivability. Over a small amount of time the damage a level 31+ WC deals will be higher, but when you look at the long term, the damage dealt by the lower level WC easily surpasses that of the high level, due to the lowered mana cost and how long you can keep casting it.
I’ve tested WC at level 31, 39, 42, 45. The difference in display damage is only 550-600 between level 31 and 45, while the mana difference is 14. The second version of this guide will have a link to a table comparing the different skill levels.
Battle Orders: Gives you a huge boost in mana and health. A must for all barbs. 20 points.
Shout: Gives a boost to defense. With your long stun duration shout doesn’t warrant more then 1 point. Even at 1 point it will still be around level 15-17 when you cast it.
Battle Command: Same thing as Shout. With your +WCs the level will be high enough that 1 point is enough
Iron Skin, Natural Resistance, Increased Stamina, Increased Speed, Find Potion: All 1 point. With a few +all skills they’re all one point wonders. Some people will tell you not to put a point in Natural Resistance, but due to Conviction Aura and the Lower Resist curse, both of which can show up PvM, I think it is a good back up.
Leap//Leap Attack: A point in both so you can get Leap Attack. Jump into groups and start casting WC. Great because a level 1 LA can get you across the whole screen.
Battle Cry, Taunt, Howl: All three of these skills are synergies for WC. You will want to have at least 2 maxed. I suggest Howl, because it gives you a huge radius at high levels and Battle Cry, because it is a great benefit to you when leveling and also to your party later on.
At level 79 with all quests done your skills should look similar to this:
20 WC
20 BO
20 Battle Cry
20 Howl
1 Leap, Leap Attack, Natural Resist, Increased Speed, Increased Stamina, Taunt, Iron Skin and Battle Command.
For levels 80+ put the points into Taunt to increase your damage.
Stat Placement:
Strength: enough for gear Slikweaves are 65, Frostburns 60, mage plate 55
Dexterity: Enough for Wizard Spike (75) or for “hel”ed Wiz (60)
Vitality: 2 points per level and all point going into Str//Dex should come from here
Energy: 3 per level. This is the lowest number you can put and still be able to cast reasonably well. If you have a lot of life scs you could get away with 4 here.
You should aim for 1.7-2k life and 2.7-3k mana after BO
Equipment Selection: Uniuqe, Magic, Set, Runeword
When choosing equipment keep in mind that you want to get 105% FCR, 1.7-2k life, 2.7-3k mana, close to 5k defense, and if possible 7frame hit recovery (15% FHR) and a level 30 WC. Depending on your gear (charms mostly) you might find that a few more +skills will work fine. I just went with 31 cause it give a nice even number for mana cost, and it reaches 1k damage.
Helm: The best possible helm would be a Jawbone Visorwith +3 Warcries, +3 BO, +3 WC, and +3 Shout, with the Whale, Squid, Centaur suffix.
Harlequin CrestShakowould be the next best helm to use: DR, +mana, +life, +2 skills perfect caster helm. Even has +2 all stats
Deliriumin a barb helm with +WC, BO, Shout problem is it has no +life or +mana
Low cost/low level options: Radianceor Lorein a +skill helm, Peasent Crown War Hat, or a +skill barb helm with sapphires
Armor: Enigmain a Mage Plate or Breast Plate would be ideal, as it give +2 skills, saves you points in strength, give life and DR, and lets you teleport
Que-Hagen’s Wisdom Mage Plate is my pick if you can’t afford Enigma, great defense, a skill, let’s you hit both the FCR and FHR break points and some mana
The Spirit Shroud Ghost Armor can also be good if you have 2 SOJs to use but would like cannot be frozen
Low cost/low level options: Stealth Breast or Mage plate, Skin of the Viper Magi Serpenskin Armor, Heavenly Garb Light Plate, 4 sapphire armor
Weapons: Wizard Spike Bone Knife, two of them. There is no replacement. Huge mana, mana regeneration, 100% FCR combined plus their very cheap, many players give them away or will sell for perfect gems. Heart of the Oaks doesn’t give enough mana and limits the use of Shako and SOJ.
Gloves: Frostburn Gauntlets are simply the best choice as they give you a huge amount of mana. Mage Fist Light Gauntlets and Trang Oul’s gloves are distant seconds
Belt: Gloom’s Trap Mesh Belt gives a 15% increase in mana and 15 vitality along with mana regeneration. Arachnid Mesh Spiderweb Sash or Nightsmoke Belt are alternatives if you can’t geta Gloom’s.
Boots: Silkweave Mesh Boots are the only real choice unless you get lucky crafting Caster boots. Waterwalk Sharkskin Boots could do if nessecary.
Rings: The Stone of Jordan is the best ring for this build. Huge mana and a skill. Ravenfrost gives mana and Cannot be Frozen and Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band has life and a skill. But if you can afford it nothing beats the SOJ. In a rare or magic ring look for mana, life, or FCR if your missing the 105% FCR breakpoint.
Amulet: Your amulet choice depends purely on your other equipment. If you use Enigma, look for FCR and mana. If your short some skills to reach 30 (remember BC adds 1 skill) then get an amulet with Echoing, Beserker prefix, or Eye of Etlich or Mara’sKaleidoscope. Mahim-Oak Curio or Saracen’s Chance both have nice stat boosts if you don’t need skills or FCR. Magic and rare amulets can come with life, mana, energy or vitality if you get lucky.
Charms: An Annihilus small charm can never hurt. Get Warcry Grand Charms if you don’t have level 30 WCs yet. Otherwise just look for life, mana and FHR if you haven’t reached the breakpoint at 15%. The next breakpoints are: 27 and 48
You don’t have to follow these items to a T. The only items I feel are non-removable are WizardSpike and Frostburns. Experiment with some of the other items to see what you like best, just keep in mind what I suggested at the top of the equipment section.
For socketing the helm and armor, put in Perfect Skulls to help get your mana back as quickly as possible. If you want to use 2 SOJ and Enigma, you could put a Cham in the helm for CBF. For the Wizard Spikes, Hel or Io runes would be the best, though Lum runes or a rare jewel with +mana, +life, FHR, Vitality or Energy could do well.
Strategy:
Mercenary: If you’re using Leap Attack, your merc could often be stranded out side the group, and quite possibly taking damage from a few monsters outside your WC radius. So you want a tough merc who can take a few hits. None of the Act 3 mercs can tank well nor do they do much damage so we can forget them completely. The Act 1 Rogue and then Act 5 Barbarian could be OK, but I think that an Act 2 merc offers the best all around benefit. He can tank and deal good damage, but his aura can also help you, even when you’re not together. The Blesses Aim, Might, and Holy Freeze mercs don’t provide any real benefit to you, and the Thorns aura loses much of it effectiveness because stunned monsters won’t be hitting you! Defiance or Prayer are sound choices, both helping you save health, since you can’t leech it back.
My suggestion for merc equipment would be: Duriel’s Shell Cuirass, Tal Rasha’s Death Mask, and Reaper’s Toll Thresher. For the merc cannot be frozen is much more important since cold will slow down his attacks. Bonehew, Arioc’s Needle, Steel Pillar, or a cruel Polearm//Spear can work well. High damage Runewords can also be used by the rich.
Do to the high mana cost and relatively low damage of WC, it is best to “herd” monsters into a group around you. This makes best use of WC radius and let’s you deal with many monsters at once, saving mana. If you run across a group, use LA right into the middle of them, so that you WC hit as many as possible. The high mana cost and low damage can easily be offset, by smart timing and by grouping the monsters. Don’t worry about getting hit as you have a large life pool and once you start using WC the monster won’t be attacking any more. Don’t be afraid to use a mana potion if you need to, you can always get more by using Find Potion.
Even with maxed resists some ranged elemental monsters still pack a punch, so don’t be afraid to run back and forth keeping them stunned, and let your merc or party take care of them.
Don’t forget to keep BO, Shout and BC on at all times, and use Battle Cry to make it easy for a party and your merc to tear through monsters.
Potions are your friend. I can not stress this enough. You have no way of leeching so if you are low in either health or mana drink and potion and then get it right back with Find Potion.
Leveling should not be too hard, because even the 60 dexterity for a hel’ed Wiz Spike, will be enough to hit things until you get WC. I don’t suggest maxing WC right away or the mana cost will quickly become too high to manage. Get about 5 points in it, then work at BO and a synergy before you come back to WC.
Large health monsters, like Izual, Lister and the Act Bosses, will have too much health for you to handle without using 2+ potions, so if you can, try to find a party or be prepared to sit and hold the mouse button down for a long time.
This build doesn’t have the high damage of Wind Druids and Hammerdins, but it survives very well, is quite fun to play and is a great change from the builds you normally see.
Thank You:
Alaipp66 the singer guru who helped me on my very first Singer.
The person who wrote the 1.09 Singer Guide for introducing my to Singers.
Everyone who posted in the Singer threads and gave me ideas and helped me find the best combination for a Singer.
To the person who convinced me of the mana regeneration route, and made me do the damage over time, mana//damage calculations.
To the person who had the best magic WC helm I’ve ever seen.
To the mod who stickies this…
To everyone who reads this, offers some advice or makes a Singer
Some helpful links:
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp)
http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=137779 (http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=137779)
In version 2 I will have a PvP section and the comparision of Wiz//HotO and WC skill levels
Introduction
Abbreviations/Terms
Overview of the build
Skill discussion
Stat placement
Equipment selection
Strategy
Thank you
PvP section coming soon
Introduction:
In the frigid northlands of Sanctuary roam the great barbarian tribes. The Shadow Wolf, the Bear, the Crane, the Snake, and the Thunder are known far and wide for there great battle prowess and the power of their connection to animal spirits. Shaman, the spiritual leaders of the barbaric tribes have amazing connections to their animal totem, allowing them to produce effects that even the legendary Bul-Kathos would be hard pressed to match. Named “singers” by the men of the south, they call on spiritual aid to stun their enemies, increase the life of allies, and make grown men cower in fear.
Potential shamans are recruited at a young age. Any youth who shows a strong connection to his totem is given to the village shaman, who subjects the boys to merciless test of there physical and spiritual strength. Few succeed in the tests, and anyone who survives can say with conviction that they will be shaman. These brave boys are then sent to a great camp in the wilderness to be trained for five years by the elder shaman. Upon their return the speak in a much more somber and subdued manner, and anyone who looks in there eyes in taken aback, but when on the field of the battle, the inner warrior breaks out of the calm shell and lays waste to any who oppose him with the power of his spirit amplified voice.
Abbreviations/Terms:
PvM: Player vs. Monster
PvP: Player vs Player
FCR: Faster Cast Rate
FHR: Faster Hit Recovery
WCs: Warcries skill tree
WC: War Cry skill
BO: Battle Orders
BC: Battle Command
LA: Leap Attack
DR: Physical Damage Reduced
Display Damage is the damage shown on the character screen
Overview of the build:
The singer barbarian uses the skill War Cry to damage and stun monsters and players, while using his high level BO and Shout to make his whole party stronger.
Skill Discussion:
War Cry: War Cry is your only source of damage and the skill that you will use the most. It rates 20 points.
War Cry deals physical damage and costs 9 mana above you current skill level (level 1 WC costs 10 mana). It will stun physical immunes even though it doesn’t do damage.
With your main skill having such a high mana cost to damage ration, it is not good to have too many +skills. A level 31 WC provides 1000 damage for 40 mana, after that the higher mana cost, makes it very hard to keep casting WC without sacrificing health and overall survivability. Over a small amount of time the damage a level 31+ WC deals will be higher, but when you look at the long term, the damage dealt by the lower level WC easily surpasses that of the high level, due to the lowered mana cost and how long you can keep casting it.
I’ve tested WC at level 31, 39, 42, 45. The difference in display damage is only 550-600 between level 31 and 45, while the mana difference is 14. The second version of this guide will have a link to a table comparing the different skill levels.
Battle Orders: Gives you a huge boost in mana and health. A must for all barbs. 20 points.
Shout: Gives a boost to defense. With your long stun duration shout doesn’t warrant more then 1 point. Even at 1 point it will still be around level 15-17 when you cast it.
Battle Command: Same thing as Shout. With your +WCs the level will be high enough that 1 point is enough
Iron Skin, Natural Resistance, Increased Stamina, Increased Speed, Find Potion: All 1 point. With a few +all skills they’re all one point wonders. Some people will tell you not to put a point in Natural Resistance, but due to Conviction Aura and the Lower Resist curse, both of which can show up PvM, I think it is a good back up.
Leap//Leap Attack: A point in both so you can get Leap Attack. Jump into groups and start casting WC. Great because a level 1 LA can get you across the whole screen.
Battle Cry, Taunt, Howl: All three of these skills are synergies for WC. You will want to have at least 2 maxed. I suggest Howl, because it gives you a huge radius at high levels and Battle Cry, because it is a great benefit to you when leveling and also to your party later on.
At level 79 with all quests done your skills should look similar to this:
20 WC
20 BO
20 Battle Cry
20 Howl
1 Leap, Leap Attack, Natural Resist, Increased Speed, Increased Stamina, Taunt, Iron Skin and Battle Command.
For levels 80+ put the points into Taunt to increase your damage.
Stat Placement:
Strength: enough for gear Slikweaves are 65, Frostburns 60, mage plate 55
Dexterity: Enough for Wizard Spike (75) or for “hel”ed Wiz (60)
Vitality: 2 points per level and all point going into Str//Dex should come from here
Energy: 3 per level. This is the lowest number you can put and still be able to cast reasonably well. If you have a lot of life scs you could get away with 4 here.
You should aim for 1.7-2k life and 2.7-3k mana after BO
Equipment Selection: Uniuqe, Magic, Set, Runeword
When choosing equipment keep in mind that you want to get 105% FCR, 1.7-2k life, 2.7-3k mana, close to 5k defense, and if possible 7frame hit recovery (15% FHR) and a level 30 WC. Depending on your gear (charms mostly) you might find that a few more +skills will work fine. I just went with 31 cause it give a nice even number for mana cost, and it reaches 1k damage.
Helm: The best possible helm would be a Jawbone Visorwith +3 Warcries, +3 BO, +3 WC, and +3 Shout, with the Whale, Squid, Centaur suffix.
Harlequin CrestShakowould be the next best helm to use: DR, +mana, +life, +2 skills perfect caster helm. Even has +2 all stats
Deliriumin a barb helm with +WC, BO, Shout problem is it has no +life or +mana
Low cost/low level options: Radianceor Lorein a +skill helm, Peasent Crown War Hat, or a +skill barb helm with sapphires
Armor: Enigmain a Mage Plate or Breast Plate would be ideal, as it give +2 skills, saves you points in strength, give life and DR, and lets you teleport
Que-Hagen’s Wisdom Mage Plate is my pick if you can’t afford Enigma, great defense, a skill, let’s you hit both the FCR and FHR break points and some mana
The Spirit Shroud Ghost Armor can also be good if you have 2 SOJs to use but would like cannot be frozen
Low cost/low level options: Stealth Breast or Mage plate, Skin of the Viper Magi Serpenskin Armor, Heavenly Garb Light Plate, 4 sapphire armor
Weapons: Wizard Spike Bone Knife, two of them. There is no replacement. Huge mana, mana regeneration, 100% FCR combined plus their very cheap, many players give them away or will sell for perfect gems. Heart of the Oaks doesn’t give enough mana and limits the use of Shako and SOJ.
Gloves: Frostburn Gauntlets are simply the best choice as they give you a huge amount of mana. Mage Fist Light Gauntlets and Trang Oul’s gloves are distant seconds
Belt: Gloom’s Trap Mesh Belt gives a 15% increase in mana and 15 vitality along with mana regeneration. Arachnid Mesh Spiderweb Sash or Nightsmoke Belt are alternatives if you can’t geta Gloom’s.
Boots: Silkweave Mesh Boots are the only real choice unless you get lucky crafting Caster boots. Waterwalk Sharkskin Boots could do if nessecary.
Rings: The Stone of Jordan is the best ring for this build. Huge mana and a skill. Ravenfrost gives mana and Cannot be Frozen and Bul-Kathos’ Wedding Band has life and a skill. But if you can afford it nothing beats the SOJ. In a rare or magic ring look for mana, life, or FCR if your missing the 105% FCR breakpoint.
Amulet: Your amulet choice depends purely on your other equipment. If you use Enigma, look for FCR and mana. If your short some skills to reach 30 (remember BC adds 1 skill) then get an amulet with Echoing, Beserker prefix, or Eye of Etlich or Mara’sKaleidoscope. Mahim-Oak Curio or Saracen’s Chance both have nice stat boosts if you don’t need skills or FCR. Magic and rare amulets can come with life, mana, energy or vitality if you get lucky.
Charms: An Annihilus small charm can never hurt. Get Warcry Grand Charms if you don’t have level 30 WCs yet. Otherwise just look for life, mana and FHR if you haven’t reached the breakpoint at 15%. The next breakpoints are: 27 and 48
You don’t have to follow these items to a T. The only items I feel are non-removable are WizardSpike and Frostburns. Experiment with some of the other items to see what you like best, just keep in mind what I suggested at the top of the equipment section.
For socketing the helm and armor, put in Perfect Skulls to help get your mana back as quickly as possible. If you want to use 2 SOJ and Enigma, you could put a Cham in the helm for CBF. For the Wizard Spikes, Hel or Io runes would be the best, though Lum runes or a rare jewel with +mana, +life, FHR, Vitality or Energy could do well.
Strategy:
Mercenary: If you’re using Leap Attack, your merc could often be stranded out side the group, and quite possibly taking damage from a few monsters outside your WC radius. So you want a tough merc who can take a few hits. None of the Act 3 mercs can tank well nor do they do much damage so we can forget them completely. The Act 1 Rogue and then Act 5 Barbarian could be OK, but I think that an Act 2 merc offers the best all around benefit. He can tank and deal good damage, but his aura can also help you, even when you’re not together. The Blesses Aim, Might, and Holy Freeze mercs don’t provide any real benefit to you, and the Thorns aura loses much of it effectiveness because stunned monsters won’t be hitting you! Defiance or Prayer are sound choices, both helping you save health, since you can’t leech it back.
My suggestion for merc equipment would be: Duriel’s Shell Cuirass, Tal Rasha’s Death Mask, and Reaper’s Toll Thresher. For the merc cannot be frozen is much more important since cold will slow down his attacks. Bonehew, Arioc’s Needle, Steel Pillar, or a cruel Polearm//Spear can work well. High damage Runewords can also be used by the rich.
Do to the high mana cost and relatively low damage of WC, it is best to “herd” monsters into a group around you. This makes best use of WC radius and let’s you deal with many monsters at once, saving mana. If you run across a group, use LA right into the middle of them, so that you WC hit as many as possible. The high mana cost and low damage can easily be offset, by smart timing and by grouping the monsters. Don’t worry about getting hit as you have a large life pool and once you start using WC the monster won’t be attacking any more. Don’t be afraid to use a mana potion if you need to, you can always get more by using Find Potion.
Even with maxed resists some ranged elemental monsters still pack a punch, so don’t be afraid to run back and forth keeping them stunned, and let your merc or party take care of them.
Don’t forget to keep BO, Shout and BC on at all times, and use Battle Cry to make it easy for a party and your merc to tear through monsters.
Potions are your friend. I can not stress this enough. You have no way of leeching so if you are low in either health or mana drink and potion and then get it right back with Find Potion.
Leveling should not be too hard, because even the 60 dexterity for a hel’ed Wiz Spike, will be enough to hit things until you get WC. I don’t suggest maxing WC right away or the mana cost will quickly become too high to manage. Get about 5 points in it, then work at BO and a synergy before you come back to WC.
Large health monsters, like Izual, Lister and the Act Bosses, will have too much health for you to handle without using 2+ potions, so if you can, try to find a party or be prepared to sit and hold the mouse button down for a long time.
This build doesn’t have the high damage of Wind Druids and Hammerdins, but it survives very well, is quite fun to play and is a great change from the builds you normally see.
Thank You:
Alaipp66 the singer guru who helped me on my very first Singer.
The person who wrote the 1.09 Singer Guide for introducing my to Singers.
Everyone who posted in the Singer threads and gave me ideas and helped me find the best combination for a Singer.
To the person who convinced me of the mana regeneration route, and made me do the damage over time, mana//damage calculations.
To the person who had the best magic WC helm I’ve ever seen.
To the mod who stickies this…
To everyone who reads this, offers some advice or makes a Singer
Some helpful links:
http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp (http://www.battle.net/diablo2exp)
http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=137779 (http://www.rpgforums.net/showthread.php?t=137779)
In version 2 I will have a PvP section and the comparision of Wiz//HotO and WC skill levels